Eremias pseudofasciata, Orlova & Rasegar-Pouyani & Rajabizadeh & Nabizadeh & Poyarkov & Melnikov & Nazarov, 2023

Orlova, Valentina F., Rasegar-Pouyani, Eskandar, Rajabizadeh, Khosrow, Nabizadeh, Hossein, Poyarkov, Nikolay A., Melnikov, Daniel A. & Nazarov, Roman A., 2023, Taxonomic diversity of racerunners with descriptions of two new Eremias species (Sauria: Lacertidae) from Central Iran, Zootaxa 5369 (3), pp. 336-368 : 356-363

Eremias pseudofasciata sp. nov. ( Figures 9c–d ; 10 a ; 11 ; 12 (RAN 4201, 4203–4205, 4208); 13 c).

Holotype. ZMMU R-12982 Iran, Khorasan Province, 20 km SE of Boshruiyeh , 33.760693° N; 57.560714° E; elevation 949 m a.s.l.; collected by R. A. Nazarov, D. A. Bondarenko & M. Rajabizadeh, 09 May 2010 ( Fig. 11 ).

Paratypes. Eleven specimens including five males ( ZMMU R-15632–15633, R-15635, and R-15638–15639) and one female ( ZMMU R-15634) with the same locality data as the holotype and four males ( ZMMU RAN 4201 , 4203 , 4204 , 4208 ) and one female ( ZMMU RAN 4205 ) from Iran, Khorasan Province, 15 km NE of Boshruiyeh , 33.972851° N; 57.517912° E; elevation 980 m a.s.l. collected 13 May 2021 by R. A. Nazarov, H. Nabizadeh .

Diagnosis. A medium sized Eremias , maximum SVL 57 mm, TL more than two times longer than the body (max. 122 mm). Supraocular plates usually in contact with frontal and frontoparietal plates, no full row of small granular and roundish scales in between, but sometimes tiny elongate scales between the supraocular and frontal plates are visible; fifth submaxillary small, 5–6 times smaller than fourth submaxillary, usually in contact with infralabials or separated by one row of granular scales; collar scales not strongly distinct from surrounding gular scales, usually only a few larger than the others. Scales at midbody 44–51; 14–19 well developed femoral pores in row, left and right rows separated by 4–7 scales; series of femoral pores not reaching the knee bend by 2–3 scales.

Coloration. Dorsal pattern comprising alternating dark and light longitudinal, regular, contrasting stripes, usually seven dark stripes in total. Two stripes on the sides of the body are darker, wider, and not as contrasting as the stripes on the dorsum. Wide, dark, longitudonal stripes without light spots begin behind the eye and pass along the sides of the body, continuing along the tail. Narrow, dark, longitudinal line between fore and hind limbs marking the ventrolateral border of the body. Juveniles have vermiculated patterns on the middle of the dorsum, formed by dark and light stripes. Sometimes adult specimens have a narrow vermiculate pattern along the vertebral line. No yellow spot on the tympanic plate. Dorsal limb surface dark brown with round light or yellowish spots. The belly is whitish and the tip of the tail light yellowish.

Description of Holotype ( Fig. 11 ). ZMMU R-12982. Adult male, SVL 56.7 mm, TL 112.3 mm, Pa 21.5 mm, Pp 36.7 mm, L.pil. 12.5 mm. Meristic features: G 26, Pfm (right/left) 18/18, Dist.Pfm 4, labialia (left/right) 9/9, infralabilia (left/right) 7/7, ventralia 31. Tail scales smooth on the base, not strongly keeled; Sq.c.cd 23, subdigital lamellae 26. Smooth, roundish dorsal scales; Sq 51, Sq. dorsal 151

Head and body moderately elongated and slightly depressed. Head length (14.5 mm) 1.88 times its width (7.7 mm) and 2.3 times as its height (6.3 mm); nasals smooth or slightly swollen; rostrum approximately the same size as postocular part of the head; head wider than neck.

Fore and hind limbs relatively long; Pa/SVL 0.37, Pp/SVL 0.64. Hind limb reaches the axilla of forelimb and extends far beyond it. Tail about twice the length of the body, TL/SVL 0.5, cylindrical and slightly depressed at the base.

Pileus (Lpil 12.5mm) plates slightly swollen. Nasals in broad contact behind the rostral, the suture between them approximately 2/5 the length of frontonasal. Frontonasal width 1/3 more than its length. Prefrontal slightly longer than broad, forming median suture. Length of frontal same as the distance between rostral to frontal, two times wider in front than behind and narrow in the middle. Frontoparietals somewhat longer than broad, weakly rugose. Interparietal teardrop-shaped, wider in front, with parietal window. Parietals somewhat longer than broad, weakly rugose, surrounded by a row of small elongate scales, different from other dorsal scales, and the next row on the middle of neck formed by triangular scales. No occipital.

Two large roundish, approximately equal sized and one small elongate posterior supraoculars. The space in front of the supraoculars occupied by one large plate, another half that size, and several granules. Supraoculars in contact with frontoparietals, but anterior supraocular plates separated from frontal by very tiny and elongate scales (not granular). Five supraciliars, anterior and posterior enlarged, separated by a single series of granules from supraoculars. Three nasals, the lower in contact with first and second supralabials and not touching the rostral. Large loreal slightly higher than broad, with two additional plates 2.5–3 times smaller anteriorly and posteriorly. Subocular smooth with broad contact with mouth, wedged between sixth and seventh supralabials. Six supralabials before subocular and three more posteriorly, the seventh infralabial on each side. Temporal scales smooth; no auricular denticulation scales; lower eyelid translucent and covered with small scales.

Five pairs of submaxillaries, three anterior pairs in full contact with each other on the midline, 4th and 5th pairs in contact with 5th, 6th, and 7th infralabials. Between 6th and 7th infralabials and 4th and 5th submaxillaries, there is one small additional scale.

Twenty six gular scales in a straight line between the symphysis of the submaxillary and the collar. Collar weakly developed and formed by seven slightly enlarged scales. Dorsal scales granular, smooth, 51 across middle of the body and 151 along middle of dorsum. Ventral plates, broader than long, forming oblique longitudinal rows of 16 plates, in 31 slightly angular transverse rows. Precloacal region with one enlarged median plate, just above the cloaca; 18 femoral pores on each side, separated by four scales; length of the series of femoral pores is four times the distance between these two rows. Femoral pores do not reach the knees bend by two ventral femoral scales on the right and left sides.

Upper surface of arm with rhombic, smooth scales. Scales on upper surface of hind limbs similar in size to the dorsal scales, enlarged plates covering the lower surface of hind limbs. Subdigital lamellae weakly carinate, 29 scales under fourth toe. Three scales around the toes.

Tail expanded at the base, covered by weakly keeled elongate scales, around 9–10 tail segments with 23 scales.

Coloration and patterns. The dorsal pattern of Eremias pseudofasciata comprises alternating dark and light longitudinal contrasting stripes, with eight dark strips on the dorsum. On the body sides, the dark stripes are wider and not as contrasting as those on the dorsum. A wide, dark, longitudinal stripe begins behind the eye, passes along the sides of the body, and continues along the entire tail. A narrow dark longitudinal line is present between the fore and hind limbs, marking the ventrolateral border of the body. A white tympanic plate is present. The dorsal surface of the limbs is dark brown with round light or yellowish spots. The tip of the tail slightly yellowish. The ventral surface of the body is white.

Distribution. Eremias pseudofasciata is only known from the type locality and a nearby location (see Paratypes).

Etymology. Since this new population more closely resembles Eremias fasciata on the basis of morphology and molecular analysis ( Fig. 5–6 ), we named this new species “ pseudofasciata ,” i.e., false fasciata .

Natural history. Eremias pseudofasciata inhabits weakly stabilized, isolated sand dunes on a gravel plain. The vegetation in this habitat is represented by the genera Salsola and Astragalus , and the families Brassicaceae and Poaceae ( Fig. 10 b ). In the same habitat, we recorded the following sympatric reptile species: Eremias fasciata Blanford, 1874 , E. lineolata ( Nikolsky, 1897) , Phrynocephalus mystaceus (Pallas, 1776) , Crossobamon eversmanni ( Wiegmann, 1834) , Teratoscincus keyserlingii Strauch, 1863 and Bunopus tuberculatus Blanford, 1874 .

Comparison. Eremias pseudofasciata sp. nov. is most closely related to E. fasciata ( Fig. 12 ) and can be distinguished by the following characters: lower number of femoral pores, with 14–19 versus 15–22 in E. fasciata , supraocular plates in a contact with frontal and frontoparietals versus separate supraocular from frontal, and full row of small granular and roundish scales in E. fasciata , colour of the tympanic plate yellow in E. fasciata versus white in E. pseudofasciata , contrasting longitudinal dark stripes in E. pseudofasciata versus no contrasting stripes in E. fasciata . Additionally, E fasciata has a dark, wide contrasting stripe on the upper part of the temporal region beginning at the posterior margin of the eye and ending above the ear opening, with 2–3 bluish-grey light roundish spots on it, while E. pseudofasciata has two dark stripes on the temporal region without light spots. One of these stripes is wider and begins at the posterior side of the eye and continues along the body to the tail, the second stripe starts at the posterior margin of the suboculars and runs to the middle of the ear opening. Rounded light spots on the femur and tibia are noticeably smaller in E. pseudofasciata in contrast to E. fasciata ( Fig. 12 ).

Eremias pseudofasciata sp.nov. clearly differs from E. graphica sp. nov. by lower number of Sq—44–51 versus 54–65, by its striped dorsal pattern versus vermiculate, and by its number of femoral pores—14–19 versus 8–17 in E. graphica .

Eremias pseudofasciata differs from E. lineolata by the mean number of femoral pores 16.07 (14–19) versus 13.6 (9–17), the distance between the series of femoral pores being four times the distance in E. pseudofasciata versus two times the distance between right and left rows in E. lineolata , the number of scales around the 9th–10th tail segment—21–26 versus 12–17, supraocular plates separated from frontals and frontoparietals by full row of small granular and roundish scales in E. lineolata versus contact between supraocular and frontal in E. pseudofasciata , the number of subdigital lamellae on the fourth toe—24–30 versus 19–24, color of the tail venter slightly yellow versus orange-reddish in E. lineolata , and two dark stripes on the temporal region without any light spots in E. pseudofasciata versus two dark contrasting stripes in the temporal region with the upper being wider and containing light spots in E. lineolata .

E. pseudofasciata can be distinguished from E. andersoni by its larger SVL (max SVL) of 57 mm versus 40 mm, smaller number of ventral scales—28–29 versus 31–33 in E. andersoni , and length of the series of femoral pores four times the distance between these two rows in E. pseudofasciata versus three times in E. andersoni . In addition, E. andersoni has light-bluish coloration on the tip of tail versus a light-yellowish tail tip in E. pseudofasciata .

Eremias pseudofasciata can be clearly distinguished from E. scripta by the greater number of femoral pores— 8–17 versus 14–18, the row of femoral pores almost reaching the knee in E. pseudofasciata but noticeably shorter in E. scripta , and gular scales 26–29 versus 15–23. In addition, the new species is characterised by smooth caudal scales, whereas for E. scripta has clearly visible keels on subcaudal scales.

Eremias pseudofasciata differs from E. cholistanica by its larger number of gular scales—26–29 versus 20–24 and the number of scales around the tail segment 21–26 versus 27–35.

From all other Eremias species inhabiting the region, the new species can be distinguished by a combination of the above-described characters.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of the 24 metric and meristic features of five species of Eremias. See Material and Methods for more details.

FIGURE 6. Phylogeny based on Bayesian inference analysis of Eremias. Values at nodes indicate posterior probabilities/ bootstrap support for BI/ML analyses, respectively. Coloration scheme representing main lineages corresponds to that in Fig. 1.

FIGURE 9. Sexual dimorphism in five species of Iranian Eremias with females in the left column and males in the right. a–b) Eremias fasciata; c–d) Eremias pseudofasciata sp. nov.; e–g) Eremias graphica sp. nov.; h–i) Eremias andersoni; j–k) Eremias lineolata.

FIGURE 10. Eremias pseudofasciata sp. nov. a) in situ at the type locality; b) habitat of the new species near Boshehr city (type locality).

FIGURE 11. Morphological features of Eremias pseudofasciata sp. nov. a) general view of holotype ZMMU R-12982; b) dorsal patterns; c, e, f) three views of the head; d) precloacal region with well developed pores, marked on one side.

FIGURE 12. Dorsal patterns of syntopic Eremias pseudofasciata sp.nov. (RAN 4201; 4203–4205; 4208) and E. fasciata (RAN 4202, 4206) from type locality of the new species. Rounded light spots on the femur and tibia are noticeably smaller in E. pseudofasciata.